Nineteen Years Late
by wizardsanddarklords
Summary: Astoria always knew that Draco had loved Hermione, she was written on his heart, engraved into his bones, always on the tip of his lips. But they were tore apart and 19 years later, they see each other again for the first and last time.  OneShot


Hello, so this is my first Dramione fanfiction. Though I have been a hardcore Dramione shipper since I watched the second film! Anyway I have bad writers block for 'You are my Past, Present and Future Now.' And I saw a gif on dear old tumblr that gave me inspiration for this and I had to write it! Anyway I hope you like it, much love always, Jazmin.

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><p>Draco paced back and forth in his manor, to any other person to have seen him, he would have looked like a worried parent, scared of sending his child to Hogwarts, and scared of the bond they shared breaking. However when Astoria saw him, she knew what was going through Draco's mind. She knew what would happen the instant they arrived on Platform nine and three quarters. There would be the precious golden trio, the weasel and the know-it-all. She knew that it would break Draco's heart and she couldn't stand the thought of that.<p>

Astoria always knew that Draco had loved Hermione, she was written on his heart, engraved into his bones, always on the tip of his lips. She knew that they were meant to be together, didn't dispute the fact, she knew in her heart that Draco wasn't hers just like she wasn't his. A marriage of blood and friendship they called it privately, they were best friends but that was all their feelings amounted to. They were the perfect pureblood couple except they didn't love each other.

Astoria would never forget the broken look in Draco's eyes when he heard they were betrothed, she was sure that her eyes mirrored his. She would never forget the hard look that filled his eyes when he knew he had to tell Hermione, she would never forget how Hermione had cried and Draco had tried and failed to comfort her. She would never forget how they had said good-bye, agreeing that it would be the last time they would ever see each other. And she would most definitely not forget Hermione's last words to her, and hers to Hermione.

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><p><em>Draco, Astoria, come here, now." Drawled Lucius Malfoy. After the war he had somehow managed to escape long term punishment in Azkaban, though Draco never knew how. His Father had done so many bad things that he was sure he would stay in Azkaban forever, but alas he had been let out, though Draco was not complaining.<em>

_He took Astoria by the arm and led her into the hall of his Manor. He looked at the beautiful girl beside him, with long straight black hair, so different to his Hermione's, whose was curly and bushy to the point of it being unruly and unmanageable._

_"Yes Father?" He said softly, his eyes hardening as he saw a contract on the desk. The last time he had seen one was when he had become a Death Eater and the memory was not pleasant._

_"Ah, good. You already look like the perfect Pureblood couple." He smiled. Astoria frowned at the man, but Draco instantly knew what he meant and let go of her arm and walked swiftly to his Father. He stood over him and glared down at him._

_"No. You cannot do this. No." He hissed down at him, his first clenched at his sides. His Father smirked up at him and laughed briefly._

_"Oh but Draco my boy, I can and have. What, did you expect me to allow you to marry your little Mudblood?"_

_"You won't allow me to do as I please. The war is over, I am of age. I choose to marry whoever I please and I choose Hermione. You can't stop me, this is my choice not yours." Draco growled at his Father, his eyes flashing till he felt a familiar hand on his arm and looked up to see his Mother next to him. Her gaze soft and full of pity for her son._

_"Draco, please. Don't make this any harder than it is." She said softly. Draco stumbled out of his Mothers embrace, shocked that she wanted to do this. As he stumbled backwards, Astoria grabbed him and righted him before he could fall. She put her arm around his waist to steady him and kept him there. She glared at the four other people in the room. Her parents and Draco's. They couldn't do this, by law they couldn't._

_"This is illegal in this age. You can't do this to Draco and me. You can disown us, cut us out of your will, but we will not marry each other and we will marry for love. You can be sure of that." She narrowed her eyes at Lucius._

_"Astoria, Draco you both don't understand. The contracts you both signed with the Dark Lord, they…" she trailed off, shaking her head in disbelief._

_"They were made to ensure that you marry a Pureblood. We don't do this for enjoyment to see you both in pain. If you marry who you really love, a Mudblood and a Muggle, they will both instantly and painfully die. But sure, don't listen to us and do it anyway. We could always use less of the both." Lucius sighed and quick as a flash Draco was at his Father's side, pulling him off the sofa he was draped over and had picked him up by the collar._

_"You're lying." He spat in his Fathers face. Lucius's face contorted and he pushed his son away and to the floor._

_"Why would I lie about this? I don't take enjoyment in seeing you hurt Draco, no matter what you think. You can read the contracts if you want. "He conjured them up and quickly Draco read the point his father pointed out and his shoulders sagged, he turned to Astoria, defeated and nodded._

_"It's true." He whispered, putting his head in his hands. Astoria went over to him and put her arms around his shoulders, whispering words of comfort. Before picking him up and pulling him over to the original contract, a marriage contract and signing her name then passing Draco the quill to sign his, He did so dejectedly then left the room, Astoria following him, knowing where he was going._

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_Draco walked fast and with purpose. He had to find her wherever she was; he had to explain to her. He had to tell her, he had to tell her he loved and he would always love her. He could hear Astoria running behind him and waited for her to catch up._

_"I'm sorry Draco." She whispered, not looking up at him. He looked at her and tilted his head. There was his best friend, his best friend for as long as he could remember. She always took his sadness to her heart as if every little thing that had ever hurt him was her fault, but in reality it never was. He lifted her chin up and smiled half-heartedly at her._

_"It's not your fault Tori, please don't think it is." She smiled back at him, mirroring his half-heartedness and they carried on walking till they reached the apparition point._

_"Where will she be?" She asked him. He thought for a moment, thinking of all the places Hermione was likely to be. It was the Christmas Holidays for Hogwarts and he knew she had gone home to see her parents the same as he had. He thought for a second longer, and then realized he knew where she would be all along._

_"London Library." He laughed softly. "Where else?" And then he apparated alongside Astoria with a pop. As they appeared outside the Library, Draco instantly knew he was right as he saw a familiar sight of curly, bushy unruly hair and quickly walked towards her. She was walking down the road, her nose in a book as it so often was. He smiled at the sight of her; she could make him do that. And carried on walking behind her as if she were a stranger. When suddenly she stopped and whispered his name, she turned to see him and as he saw the delight in her eyes she flung her arms around his neck. He held her tight and buried his head into her hair, breathing in her familiar intoxicating scent._

_"Hermione. My Hermione." He whispered sadly and Hermione looked up at him and saw how he was broken and instantly became worried._

_"What's happened?" She whispered before glancing around and she saw Astoria. Hermione grabbed Draco's hand and pulled him to the nearest park, into her favourite bit as it as the most private. She motioned for Astoria to follow her and she did. As she came to the spot she let go of Draco's hand and folded her arms, protecting her heart, expecting the worse. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath before opening them and locking onto Draco's astonishingly silver eyes._

_"Tell me." She whispered before Draco told her the whole story. The only change in her being was the slow flow of tears that began to run down her face. She nodded and burst into tears when Draco was finished, he too having cried the whole way through. E walked to her and pulled her into his arms, tying to comfort her, trying to tell that they would find a way out of it, that everything would be okay but Hermione carried on crying, grasping onto his shirt till eventually she calmed down and stopped crying. She took a breath before pulling out of Draco's arms and folded her arms again and looked to the floor._

_"So this is it?" She whispered._

_"What do you mean?"_

_"You can't stop it Draco, it's old magic. You can't marry me as much as I can't marry you. You will marry Astoria." At Astoria's name she looked back into his eyes and tried to smile. "You have to, at least it's not Pansy." She laughed softly, begging Draco with her eyes to laugh to. He just shook his head at her._

_"We can make this work Mione, I know we can."_

_"No Draco." She smiled tearfully shaking her head. "We can't. I don't think I would be able to hand seeing you happy with Astoria while I was the other woman. I couldn't stand at the side of your life, making you always half happy as you could never full love Astoria. I couldn't do that to you or to her. Nor could you do it to me. This is it Draco, we have to promise that we won't see each other again." He shook his head immediately at her and made to make an excuse before she stopped him._

_"Please Draco, promise me this. We need to go our separate ways, we can't see each other again it would just hurt too much."_

_At this Draco pulled Hermione into his arms and kissed her, Astoria had to look away as she felt the pain and love emitting from them both and turned back to see him placing a chaste kiss on the top of her head. Hermione made to walk away when Draco grabbed her arm and hesitated before speaking._

_"I never told you Hermione, but, I, I love you." He whispered. Hermione took a breath before replying, the pain evident in her voice._

_"I love you too Draco, with all my heart." Then she turned and walked to Astoria._

_"Love him Astoria. Love him with everything you have and never let him go." She smiled before walking past her and as she did Astoria turned and replied to Hermione._

_"He will always be yours Hermione, for him there will always only be you."_

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><p>Astoria knew why Draco was worried, today would be the first time he had seen Hermione since that day. Nineteen years later and he would finally see her again. Astoria quickly whispered for Scorpios to go to the appartation point while she spoke with his Father. She watched the blond boy run out before turning to Draco and putting her hand on his upper arm to stop him pacing. He looked at her as if trying to find someone else and then sighed.<p>

"I should just stay here."

"No you shouldn't Mr. Malfoy. You are coming to see your only son off to Hogwarts."

"But Tori, I can't, I, I can't see her Tori."

"I'll put a blinding spell on you, if you want?" she smiled, lifting up her wand. He laughed at her and pulled her into a hug.

"I love you Tori, I do." He whispered into her hair.

"I love you too Draco, I do." She whispered back before pulling away and grabbing hold of Draco's hand. "Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be." He smiled back and they walked to the apparition point, and appearing in at platform nine and three quarters. Draco quickly found an empty spot and rushed Scorpios and Astoria to it. He shook hands with his son before pulling him into a hug, telling him how he will be proud no matter what house he gets into too. Then Astoria did the same and Draco looked around and then he saw her.

She was there with the Weaselbee and two children, a little girl and boy. The girl, he thought, looked like a miniature version of the Weasel but as she turned he saw the familiar spark of intelligence that he knew were in Hermione's eyes. And the little boy was the miniature version of the Weasel, but with Hermione's warm brown eyes. He watched as Hermione hugged the girl and her gaze locked onto his. In the moment Draco was frozen, not knowing what to do or how to react, all the old feelings flooding back into his heart, his should and his heart sped up. He watched as Hermione smiled warmly at him and he returned the smile with as much warmth.

He turned back to Astoria and Scorpius and Astoria nodded at him, having also spotted Hermione. He put his arm around Scorpius and turned to see that Hermione had had the same idea as him and was walking over to him with her daughters hand in hers. She came to them both and her smile grew.

"Hello Draco." She said softy.

"Hello Hermione." He smiled her smile, for the first time in years.

"This is my daughter Rose." She said, pushing the girl forward a bit, Draco bent down and kissed her hand.

"Hello little Miss Rose, I am Draco Malfoy. Nice to meet you." The little girl blushed and whispered 'and you too Mr Malfoy.' He stood up and pushed Scorpius forward a little bit.

"This is my son, Scorpius." Hermione made a face at him and bent down to the little boy, shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you Scorpius Malfoy, I'm Hermione Weasley." Draco frowned at her taking the Weasels last name but didn't show any other reaction. Hermione stood up and pushed Rose towards Scorpius.

"Now both of you, go find a carriage, okay? We'll come and wave you off in a second." They both nodded at her and left the two together. Hermione looked at Draco, inspecting her him just as he was doing to her. They could both see the physical changes that the pair had gone through. Draco's hair had thinned out emphasizing his pointed chin, he wasn't as thin as she last remembered but had bulked out slightly. Hermione had streaks of grey in her hair, but it was still as curly and bush and unruly as he remembered, she had laughter lines on her face and she smiled as he tucked a stray wisp of hair behind her hair.

"Hermione, my Hermione." He whispered to her, she blushed slightly.

"Draco, my twitchy little ferret." She laughed softly. Then took his arm as the whistle blew and pulled him to the carriages to wave good-bye to their children. In the crowd no one noticed how the Slytherin Prince, Draco Malfoy and the Gryffindor Princess, Hermione Weasley held hands as they waved away their children.

They turned o each other and smiled, the crowd was thinning now and they were forced to let go of each other's hands. Draco kissed Hermione cheek.

"I love you Draco Malfoy, forever." She smiled at him tearfully.

"I will always be yours Hermione. For me, they is always only you." He whispered before they both turned away and went their separate ways. Hermione walked to Ron and their son Hugo. Draco walked over to his best friend, Astoria. And while they both walked away, Hermione to her and Ron's car and Draco to the apparition point. They both knew that they still loved each other and that they both always would.


End file.
